Planting day March 18 2015

Finally getting to my planting day post. Between leaving my ipad at my parents and life in general , Im a bit late.
Im starting with the hummingbird garden as it has really come into its own this year. I planted the vine on the wall 3 years ago. FINALLY it blooms. 

As my husband now works full time at home I have plenty of help. He is also bringing his own form of creativity to the yard !!  we have added 2 more teepees and moved them closer to the grapes. Hopefully I can train the grapes over the trellis.  We are growing cucumbers , egg gourds and green beans on the teepees.   So far so good .

For the last 2 years I have had mulch on the trees.  This spring it was evident more was needed. As it was heavy and hard to work with I decided to try straw and cardboard.  Works well but I did like the mulch better .The straw while being cheaper is kind of slippery. My trees are doing good. I should have a real harvest of apples and apricots this year.  Its been 3 years so they are on track. Not quite sure about peaches and plums as they are later varieties.

My avocados have tons of blooms . We are crossing our fingers. The citrus is also finally starting to take off. I have started pruning them like trees so Im not so sure how much we will get this year. We live in a very heavy citrus area however so its not a problem. I am growing zucchini, melons and giant pumpkins here this year .Hopefully.  Also I have doubled my canning tomatoes and they are along the fence.

my poor burned out original garden is getting the onion , corn and popcorn rotation this year. I have a special new place for the peppers !  I planted the onions in October and planted new ones behind in march. Potatoes will be along the back.

 

And here it is the "PEPPER PALACE"  !!!  If it looks like my old chicken coop you are right!!!! They weren't using it so I took it back. I have tomatillos on the side and have blocks of the following peppers , Anaheim, poblano, jalapeno, yellow banana, habanero , and yellow, red and green bell peppers. Plus a heirloom tomato experiment. I can tell already they are much happier here. Years of chicken shit!!!!

Death and destruction . It's that time of year.

 So yes my blogging was embarrassingly limited last year. As with most of us life took over and with my hands in so many pies blogging had to take a backseat. My gardening time was limited but not unsuccessful. The weeds grew a little higher and beauty pruning lacked but with my systems in place I still grew about 35 % of my food supply. Maybe even a little more but who wants to count. It takes all the fun out of it.

   The one thing I did realize last week while I was enjoying my garden fresh coleslaw, marinara made out of my frozen tomatoes and the best popcorn I have ever eaten , was that the blog had helped me to understand how to grow year round and gave me an understanding of processing to eat year round. I want to continue to learn and have a source to check back on. As my life and living exists on the Internet it still is the best way for me to journal.
 
So I am kicking off the blog with my garden at its worse. Or worse looking. This year I will be blogging  the garden at its worse and best. For me and not to impress. I grew up with having to invite people into your clean home. Last year the blogging lagged for many reasons. One of which was I had no time for cleaning it up. Yes I did weed and stuff but not picture taking kind. So here it goes...

 Our first and probably only frost . First week of January I was putting up the Christmas lights as everyone was taking them down. My r2d2 propane heater is a success. Notice the lemons and if you look real hard you can see my 5 tangerines on the tallest tree. The lime tree did well . Fruit was harvested until October. No grapefruit yet.

I guess papaya trees don't like the cold .never even considered moving it until it was dead . Crossing 

our fingers it will grow back. Who even eats papayas  

These are the cherry tomatoes that ate my yard. Total death after one night of 28 degrees. Doesn't matter though . This year I learned that green tomatoes won't mature during short sunlight days. Yes I tried to let them get green in the house. They sucked. 

 Winter garden fared well. It surprises me how the plants can freeze solid 4 days in a row and stil live . That empty looking space is my onions. Got them in late but they are now growing.